10,000 Birds

AUGUST 27, 2014

Of course, I have seen many more birds than this, but between having terrible notes, really awful notes, or entirely lost notes, eBird doesn’t represent my total life list at all. It comes down to the other reason why eBird doesn’t have all the birds I’ve seen. Photo from ‘Eua, Tonga. It was a split.

Tonga 175

Tonga Fiji Samoa Vanuatu 175

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2011

Sadly, as I’ve explained before , most of these species became extinct as humans arrived on the islands, and with it one of the most astonishing radiations of birds imaginable. I certainly did when I visited the two southern islands of Tonga a few years ago. But here’s the thing. It didn’t used to be.

Tonga 165

Tonga New Zealand Samoa Fiji 165

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

All of the birds within Raphini are highly specialized for island life. It’s a spectacular pigeon with long neck plumes and blue, green, and copper iridescence in its feathers (I mean, look at this bird ), and it lives on islands from the western Indian Ocean all the way out through northern Melanesia. ” Beehler et al.’s

Solomon Islands 275

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 275

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2011

The world of birding is filled with challenging groups well known to all, birds like gulls , Empidonax flycatchers or cisticolas that require attention to the tiniest details in order to assign an individual to a specific species (if it can be done at all). One such bird is the Collared Kingfisher ( Todiramphus chloris ).

Samoa 168

Samoa Vanuatu United Arab Emirates Tonga 168

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2015

All the way back in 2011 I wrote about the confusing taxanomic enigma that is the Collared Kingfisher , a species that ranges from the Red Sea to Tonga in a bewildering variety of forms. I’m not sure why Australian birds are given this name, but the Australian subspecies is the Torrresian Kingfisher ( Todiramphus sordidus ).

United Arab Emirates 176

United Arab Emirates Micronesia Tonga Vanuatu 176